Today was spent grading papers and preparing for classes. I did go out for a coffee with a colleague after class, which was nice. I have discovered that Mondays tend to be extra busy for me, primarily because most of my students travel over the weekend and so send me their homework late Sunday night or early Monday morning, which means that I spend most of Monday grading.

Today was spent grading and preparing for classes. I didn’t leave my apartment until after 17h when I decided that I should take a walk. I had forgotten that Differdange holds a market on Sunday afternoons. It’s like a flea market (or what we called a swap meet when I was a child) except it’s on sidewalks and plazas. There was also a carousel, a band, and some people selling food. People we selling the same sorts of stuff they sell in the states with two exceptions. First, they apparently don’t sell furniture, which makes sense since most people walked to the sale, and I have yet to see a pickup. Second, I didn’t see any mens clothes, which isn’t surprising since they don’t sell mens clothes in Luxembourg.

I did see this neat old building on my walk:

I suspect that this is going to be a quiet week, but stay tuned.

I woke up early so that I could get to Metz by 8am. To judge by the CFL’s website, I should have been able to get a train ticket from Differdange to Metz for 21,60 €. The ticket agent at the Luxembourg station—the main station for the country—told me that the best he could do was a ticket from Belval to Metz for that amount. I’d have to pay for the 7 minute trip between Belval and Differdange. I didn’t think this was correct, but I didn’t argue. I was tempted to take that short ride without a ticket, but I didn’t. Good thing, too. Shortly after we left Differdange, the conductor went around looking at our tickets. So I had to show my 4€ all day pass, but I never had to show the ticket I bought in Luxembourg Gare to get to France.

As was the case with Trier, there’s no sign along the tracks indicating that you’re now in France.  I had hoped to go to the botanical gardens but I never could get the online maps to match reality. I never saw a sign for it, either. The city has very cool but very hard to read signs that are like reverse stencils. I did make it to Saint-Etienne cathedral and the Marché Couvert that surrounds it. The cathedral is one of the tallest in Europe, so it was difficult to get far enough away from the cathedral to get it all in:

As soon as I saw it, I was reminded of David Macaulay’s Cathedral: The Story of Its Construction, a book I had read as a boy. One of the other MUDEC faculty members is an architect and he reminded me that Macaulay’s book is about a fictitious cathedral and not this one.

The market is around the cathedral, as well as in its own building. I realized shortly after looking around that my French sorely lacked two important elements: numbers and fractions. This limited me to items that either I wanted an entire kilo of (like apples) or that were sold by the piece. I did find one vendor who had customers choose their own produce, which was helpful to me.

Among other items, I bought these great looking (and fortunately, great tasting), fraises:

On my way back to the train station, I saw the Temple Neuf.

Again, I’m going to blame the crookedness on needing to back up to get the entire building in.

Across the street from the train station is this Metropole Hotel:

The name of the first stop on the way back to Luxembourg struck me as funny:

When I returned to Differdange, I noticed for the first time a building that looks abandoned. I’ve passed it at least twice a day since I’ve been here. I don’t know how I missed it.

And so ends a very long day.

Today was not particularly exciting. I spent the morning teaching, and the afternoon and evening cleaning, eating, and preparing for my trip to Metz tomorrow. I learned from my trip to Trier not to expect the city to be as well signed as Luxembourg City is, at least as far as finding the train station goes. As I was preparing, I noticed that Google maps think that the French suddenly lost all creativity and named every road with the same name (you’ll need to click on the image):

Bing maps does a better job (I assume):

The last place to visit on my itinerary is the Marché Couvert de Metz  (The Covered Market of Metz), which reminds me of Findlay Market in Cincinnati. The trip takes nearly an hour and half. The market opens at 7h and stays open until 19h but every thing I’ve read recommends getting there before 13h. So…I suspect that a lot of coffee and a nap will also be on tomorrow’s agenda.

I decided to go to Trier, Germany today. It’s about an hour away by train. When I got there, I could feel the linguistic gears in my head grinding as I tried to switch from French to German. I was pleasantly surprised that I could communicate rather well considering that my knowledge of German was limited to reading.

Without knowing where I was going, I found the Porta Nigra:

From there, I wanted to find Marx’s birth house. It wasn’t that easy, partly because there are not many signs directing you to it, and partly because ironically enough, Trier is now a giant open air mall. Fittingly, even the Marx Haus sells trinkets, including this must have:

Notice how the price plaque (aka capitalism) has risen above Marx, who is doing his best Napoleon impersonation. As you might imagine, there are many stores that trade on the Marx name. What was totally unexpected, by me at any rate, was the number of men who took Marx’s hairdo as their model coiffure. You’d think there was a Marx look-alike contest going on.

I saw this shop and assumed that it was either some kind of philosophy shop going out of business or the cosmetics company of the same name going in:

I was wrong on both counts. It’s a gadget kind of store. I’m not really sure how to describe it. Take a look for your self.

And now for the obligatory Arizona photo:

I’ll conclude with another Domino photograph, albeit a bit more ominous than the previous ones. From a distance, it looks innocent enough:

But then you get close enough to read the motto above the clock:

I’ll leave you with that thought while I go prepare for my classes tomorrow.

I went down to Luxembourg City (hmm, that’s almost how the Republic and Thus Spoke Zarathustra begin) in the hopes of getting a data SIM card. Alas, the prices I saw on the internet are for established customers who commit to a year. I’ll have to keep looking.

I also went to the hypermarket Auchan. To say that it anchors the eponymous mall doesn’t do justice to just how big it is. The ground level floor has electronics, clothes, more school supplies than I knew existed, and so on. The upper floor has food; the two floors are connected by escalators. At least in this mall, the escalators are flat like conveyor belts rather than having steps as they do in the States, which allows carts to easily change floors.

The three most frequent complaints I heard online were that Auchan is expensive, has poor produce in the store, and has produce that doesn’t last very long at home. One reviewer claimed that produce goes bad on the way home. That wasn’t my experience, but I did just get home.

The quality of the produce in the store seemed just fine to me. Everything looked great and the selection was greater than in other stores. Maybe Auchan upped their game. There is a small produce section by the coffee, and that produce does not look too great (but not bad either). I suppose it’s possible that some reviewers missed the main produce section.

I don’t have much data about prices. In fact, I have only two data points. On the one hand, they have the Nespresso Inissia for 10€ below MSRP. On the other hand, my beloved bitter lemon soda was 2.70€, substantially more than the 1.85€ I pay at Delhaize.

They do have Domino coffee:

But the real reason to shop at Auchan is this:

Yes! Colored toilet paper! How great is that?!

A colleague from the states came over to give a lecture. He asked me about the cost of living, and what I did not like about living here. I don’t think I have anything surprising or interesting to say about what I don’t like. Like most people from the States, I do not like that people do not pick up after their dogs even when the dogs defecate on the sidewalk. This is nothing unique to Luxembourg. I have seen it in Italy and in France as well. More people smoke here, and you frequently have to walk through a cloud of smoke to get into a cafe and invariably the people walking in front of you in the city will be smoking.

My life has been rather isolated so far, so I can’t give a very accurate picture of the cost of things. Rent seems higher than it would be in the states. Here in the Chateau, we are charged 350€-1,650€ for utilities every month (in addition to water, trash, electric, and heat, this includes wifi and basic cable). Coffee makers seem to cost substantially more here. For example, I considered purchasing a red Nespresso Inissia Espresso Maker. In the US, I could order one from Amazon for US$90.85 with free shipping. Google tells me that right now, that’s 70.24€. The price direct from Nespresso is 98.90€, which includes tax. I’m not sure if that includes shipping, but since there’s a Nespresso store in Luxembourg City, I could just pick it up next time I’m down there. In contrast, the German Amazon sells them for 109€ with free shipping, while the French Amazon lists them for 127.95€ + 7.00€ shipping.

In the supermarket, most of the prices strike me as reasonable if I forget that the price is in euros and imagine that it’s in US dollars. It’s easy to forget that European prices include taxes, unlike in the US. Somethings cost about the same but are much better. For example, I paid 1.50€ for a marzipan croissant yesterday at the bakery. That’s about US$2.00, which is what you’d pay at Starbucks for a croissant of inferior quality. Cheese is another item where the prices may be about the same, but the quality here is far superior.

Some items are remarkably cheaper here. For example, one local supermarket is advertising a liter of Campari for 12.70€ (=US$16.35 today) and that includes all taxes. Depending on where you bought it, you could easily spend twice that in the states when you include tax.

The train is another huge savings. A monthly pass would cost me $2.20 per day for unlimited travel. My car insurance alone is more than $1/day. Add in gas, maintenance, and of course the cost of the car itself, and, well, I really wish we had trains at home (I know that some cities in the US have trains; I just don’t live in any of them).

Today was primarily a work day. Aside from teaching related activities, I took two walks around Differdange. In the morning, I walked to two pâtisseries/boulangeries that I found on Google maps. The buildings were there but the stores I had hoped to find had closed. I did find one that wasn’t on Google Maps on the way home. In general, I’ve found that Google Maps is less than up-to-date or even precise here. This may be because there still is no Street View in Luxembourg. But wandering is nice. I found this neat old house on my afternoon walk:

The excitement for tomorrow is having my TB test read. Be sure to tune in tomorrow!

Continuing my wild adventures, this morning I went to the larger supermarket several towns away. Here’s why this was dangerous: on Sunday mornings, the trains run hourly only. This would give me 37 minutes to get from the train station in Belval to the supermarket and back to the train station. The downside of missing the train wouldn’t have been merely that I’d have to wait an hour at a train station (although there’s not much there except for some benches and recycling bins) but I’d have to buy another ticket (or be fined). Yep, I was using the cheaper 2 hour ticket. Unfortunately, I’ve been feeling a bit feverish, so I’m sure that affect my judgment.

Anyway, when I got to Belval, the skywalk between the station and the mall was closed. I should have expected this since the supermarket is the only store in the mall that opens on Sunday. So I had to take the long way around the mall to get to the store. Once there, I moved quickly. The store was empty except for two other shoppers and one woman stocking (it turned out that she was also the cashier). I made it through the checkout in record time and was just about to sign the credit card receipt when the cashier discovered that she didn’t have a pen. She looked everywhere, evening went banging around in the back office. Meanwhile, in my head the theme from Jeopardy is playing. Finally she locates a pen and I’m on my way. But then, no!, I was actually 14 minutes early. I was the only one at the station as fog rolled in.

So far I have been amazingly wrong about how many people will be on the trains. I thought I’d be the only one this morning leaving from Differdange, but there were about a dozen. Once I went at rush hour expecting to be surrounded by other passengers, but I had the upper deck of the train car all to myself.

I forgot to mention Monoprix’s attempt to apologize for not having men’s clothes:

It was great cheese at an awesome price, but 1€? I’m not that easy.

After working for several hours, I took a walk. It’s amazing that in 30 minutes you can go from a city full of life to the abandoned D’Mine Grôven in the middle of the woods.

At the beginning, the trail followed the barely visible train tracks.

The are some neat old photos here for the trains that once used these tracks (see the pictures of Differdange and Thillenberg). These are more recent photos of the Thillenberg Mines, and these give you a look inside.

This morning I went to the farmers market in Luxembourg City. After I had purchased the items I came to get, I decided to buy a few Italian pastries. Once again, I got in trouble speaking Italian. I wanted to say “these” but I didn’t know the word in French so the Italian just came out without thinking. The couple running the booth were Italian. Of course. Once they heard me speak one word of their native tongue, it was like we were old friends. The woman was particularly good at sales. She would give me samples. While I was tasting them, she would detail the effort that went into each cheese or meat. Unlike CostCo where you can eat your samples and move on, I felt compelled to buy some of the cheese and prosciutto. I’m sure she saw me coming, as they say. Oh well. There are worse things to throw away money on than cheese and ham.

After that, I spent a couple of hours after the farmers market walking around the city. The city is quite hilly and has some spectacular views:

There are signs everywhere for the train station (there’s only one for the whole city), so it’s easy to get back no matter how far you wander. It’s a little less easy to get to somewhere in particular. My GPS is almost worthless here, perhaps because of the switchback roads along the hills, and there’s no consistent street signage. Whereas in the older parts of say Torino and Nice the street signs are on the corners of buildings, here they might be on the building or they might be on a pole or they just might not be (unless I missed them). There seem to be far more signs pointing you toward something rather than indicating where you are.

I came home for lunch around 1pm. I still had a valid train ticket so I decided to go to Dudelange, the third most populous city in Luxembourg after Luxembourg City and Esch-sur-Alzette (both of which I had been to). This does not mean that Dudelange is a big city; after all, Differdange is the fourth most populous city. According to Wikipedia, the populations of the four biggest cities were 76,420; 27,14; 17,320; and 10,248 in 2001. Even if those numbers have increased, the ratio between the cities has not. There is a huge drop in population between Luxembourg City and Esch. The population of Dudelange is not that much more than the number of Miami students in Oxford. Anyway, I got off at one stop in Dudelange and back on at another. The city closes off the main shopping street on Saturday afternoons, which is nice, although the drivers here are very much aware of pedestrians. Shortly after I left the station, I was greeted by this street sign:

After that auspicious beginning, things went, well, not down hill, but just not different than what I had seen elsewhere. I walked around but it didn’t seem much different than Differdange (not a slight). I did happen across a little park near the train station from which I left Dudelange:

I don’t think I’ve ever felt the presence of WWII as much as I have here. Notice the command at the end: Remember!

I forgot to mention earlier that we went to the Luxembourg American Cemetery and Memorial where over 5,000 US soldiers are buried, including General Patton.

From the profound to the trivial…

So now I am going to do what every American professor does in Europe: laundry and work for my classes. Yep, living the vida loca over here.

Update: I’m back with another laundry story or two. The machines do not start right away, so I like to hang out until I know that they’re actually going to be doing something. As you might imagine, there’s not much of interest in a laundry room. As I’m looking around, I notice that the dryer does not vent outside. Before you tell me about  how people do this in the winter to warm up their basements and add moisture to their houses, this isn’t that. The room doesn’t feel particularly warm or humid. In fact, I can barely feel the air coming out of the dryer (someone else was using it).

Now it’s my turn to use the dryer and…it won’t start. Here’s the control panel:

The two indicator lights on the left that are on I suspect are telling me something. I know that rein in German means pure or clean, so I take a wild guess that “Filter reinigen” means clean the lint trap in Dutch. I know this isn’t German because the other light is telling me water reservoir vol, which isn’t German. The first two words are clear enough. The last one is almost the German word for full (voll) but I’ve never heard of a dryer with a water reservoir. Having no better idea about what to do, I poke around the machine until I find—you guessed it—a water reservoir, somewhat like a smaller version of what’s in a dehumidifier. And guess what? It was full of water! I guess that explains where the water goes if it isn’t sent outside. I dump it out and I’m back in business! Who knew that doing laundry could be such an adventure.